The myth of letting your winners run

Discussion in 'Risk Management' started by Flowfollower, Jun 2, 2020.

How do you do it?

Poll closed Jul 21, 2020.
  1. Outlier hunting

    20.7%
  2. Profit target

    44.8%
  3. A combination of both eg trim and trail

    34.5%
  1. deaddog

    deaddog

    I agree with you in theory.

    Couple points though. Won't size move the market?

    Doesn't trader psychology move the market? (Fear and Greed)
     
    #171     Jun 7, 2020
  2. Tradex

    Tradex

    In the Forex, a 200 million position will probably move the EUR/USD a pip or two during the London/New-York session, so I wouldn't worry too much about size if I were you. ;)

    But we are precisely counting on fear and greed to move the market my friend, that's how trends start! :D
     
    Last edited: Jun 7, 2020
    #172     Jun 7, 2020
    deaddog likes this.
  3. guowei58

    guowei58

    trend following systems = let your profit run until it goes parabolic or breaks trend
    mean reversion systems = take profit after reversion

    you need a few big wins in a trend following system. you need to avoid those few big losses in a mean reversion system
     
    #173     Jun 8, 2020
    BeautifulStranger likes this.
  4. The reasoning is this...

    If you take profit off when your target is reached? Why? Because alot of the time the market can go higher and it does. Do you buy back in if it consolidates and go higher?

    I think profit should be taken off when there is a reversal which shows prices are going towards the downside at least temporarily.

    Taking off profit will lead to consistent gains, lesser drawdowns but a shallower equity curve (also keep in mind partly because of more commissions involved).

    Not taking off profit till reversal will lead to higher drawdowns, less consistent gains but a steeper equity curve and bigger account.
     
    #174     Jun 8, 2020
  5. volpri

    volpri

    I am trying out a new technique (at least new to me) to avoid 95% of the weeding in my garden. You can view my before...yes before ...I tried a new technique. It is called putting down woven fabric. So here is the same area with the woven fabric put down. Then I burn holes in the fabric with a torch where I am going to plant seed. Throw in some epson salts ....mulch and a little bit of cow shit, Diatomaceous Earth,
    Then cover it And watch it grow. Bye bye weeds. Bye bye weeding hoe...bye bye.

    Here the butterbeans, peas, and okra have been planted and many are poking through the holes already. Just planted like Thursday or Friday I think it was. Maybe wed. The latter pic is okra planted 2 days ago and not yet poking through.

    So now you see why I can’t stay in front of the computer all day. Gotta be doing other things too. Like today had to fix the plumbing under the kitchen sink. The wife forgot the drain pipe was leaking and she turned the water on and got the bottom of her new cabinets wet. Boy was she mad. I had to stop trading today and fix the plumbing myself. No time to wait for a lazy ass plumber to crawl his carcass over here to fix it. So sunday I am up under the house fixing the drain pipe fighting off the spiders and ahoping no dang timberback rattler shows up under there with me. Then today in the house fixing the leak under the sink Got her all fixed and now momma is happy as a lark. When duty calls boys we gotta jump. If momma ain’t happy nobody is happy. In spite of much of my day taken I still managed to do some trading. If I feel like it tomm I may post them in my journal. Had 2 or 3 losses but overall ended the day in profit. What do you guys think of my garden. Getting to old to be weeding.

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    #175     Jun 8, 2020
  6. Overnight

    Overnight

    And a second job. You were moonlighting yer sax skills back in the day in cartoons. That's where the phat cash came from.

     
    #176     Jun 8, 2020
  7. %%
    QQQ also/generally speaking.
    Also that truth was discovered when commissions were much higher; still excellent guide in some markets/etfs/dividend etfs…………………………………………………………………………….....
     
    #177     Jun 10, 2020
    carrer likes this.
  8. deaddog

    deaddog

    Those who sell early also state the myth "You can't go broke taking a profit"

    And then there are those who claim "You don't have a loss until you sell"
     
    #178     Jun 10, 2020
    trendo, murray t turtle and ironchef like this.
  9. ironchef

    ironchef

    True. I keep a few GE shares I bought a few years ago at the then bargained price of $30 a share. I refuse to recognize a loss on those. :banghead:
     
    #179     Jun 10, 2020
    murray t turtle likes this.
  10. I recognize the problem having had similar experiences myself.

    If you look at how ES moves most of the time - it's very rare that it moves 20 points without a (significant) retrace.

    If you're actually behind the computer and try to capture a big one - one way to deal with it is this:

    Let's say you're swinging for a 30 point target and you're currently 20 points in the green off a swing low.

    Bank those 20 points of profit. You now have 20 points profit or 'risk capital' if you will.

    Re-enter at a lower price on the retrace if you still get a buy signal OR if you don't get that and momentum picks up - re-enter at a similar price to where you exited.

    The outcome will probably always be better. Best case - you're re-entering 10 points lower and squeeze an extra 10 points out of your original 30 point target for a total of 40 points instead.
     
    #180     Jun 11, 2020
    ondafringe likes this.